The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the connection between our gifts, love, and forgiveness.
 |
| Beside still waters |
In the reading from 1 Timothy, the community leader is urged to preach and teach with confidence.
* [4:11–16] Timothy is urged to preach and teach with confidence, relying on the gifts and the mission that God has bestowed on him.1
In Psalm 111 deeds reveal God’s very self, powerful, merciful, faithful.
* [Psalm 111] A Temple singer (Ps 111:1) tells how God is revealed in Israel’s history (Ps 111:2–10). The deeds reveal God’s very self, powerful, merciful, faithful. The poem is an acrostic, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus instructs the Pharisee Simon through the actions of a sinful woman who is forgiven.
* [7:36–50] In this story of the pardoning of the sinful woman Luke presents two different reactions to the ministry of Jesus. A Pharisee, suspecting Jesus to be a prophet, invites Jesus to a festive banquet in his house, but the Pharisee’s self-righteousness leads to little forgiveness by God and consequently little love shown toward Jesus. The sinful woman, on the other hand, manifests a faith in God (Lk 7:50) that has led her to seek forgiveness for her sins, and because so much was forgiven, she now overwhelms Jesus with her display of love; cf. the similar contrast in attitudes in Lk 18:9–14. The whole episode is a powerful lesson on the relation between forgiveness and love.3
Tom Shanahan, S.J. shares there is a modern story we may have heard that parallels this gospel account. It concerns the events in the life of John Newton (born 1725). He was a ship captain whose tasks involved transporting slaves from Africa to America.
The woman who loved so deeply after having been forgiven much and the wretch we’ve visited with today share a similar history. They recognized God’s mercy in their lives and responded with deep and abiding love. Can we wretches respond like them? Nobody wants to be called a wretch and, ironically, that’s the point. My sin and wretchedness are no match for God’s lavish love. Lord, help me to surrender to your grace be made real in the ups and downs of my life!4
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus the Physician brings miraculous healing to the woman's sins,” by Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD).
"Healing the sick is a physician's glory. Our Lord did this to increase the disgrace of the Pharisee, who discredited the glory of our Physician. He worked signs in the streets, worked even greater signs once he entered the Pharisee’s house than those that he had worked outside. In the streets, he healed sick bodies, but inside, he healed sick souls. Outside, he had given life to the death of Lazarus. Inside, he gave life to the death of the sinful woman. He restored the living soul to a dead body that it had left, and he drove off the deadly sin from a sinful woman in whom it dwelt. That blind Pharisee, for whom wonders were not enough, discredited the common things he saw because of the wondrous things he failed to see." (excerpt from HOMILY ON OUR LORD 42.2)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 7:36-50 identifies the irony. The one who was more keenly aware of her sins ended up happier and more richly blessed.
Jesus wants to lift our burdens. He wants to remove anything that keeps us from knowing his love. But he can do that only with our cooperation. He respects us too much to force his mercy on us. Only the ones who see their sin and confess their need for him can receive the freedom this woman knew.6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the youthfulness of Timothy. The parable has a least two related interpretations about the connection between forgiveness and love. Friar Jude notes the salvation that Luke associates with our encounter with Jesus.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, notes that in addition to the Bhagavad Gita, Mahatma Gandhi considered the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) some of the greatest writing on nonviolence.
Gandhi disciplined himself to read daily from the Sermon on the Mount, and live according to those teachings. Because of this commitment, he helped liberate both South Africa and India from systemic violence and showed the world the power of active nonviolence. In the process, Gandhi, a Hindu, became a Christ-like figure, “the greatest Christian of modern times,” according to Martin Luther King Jr.7
Our example as disciples of Jesus may open others to the invitation of the Spirit to live in love, forgiveness, and the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment